Reg­is­tra­tion of diesel cars banned in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Na­tional Green Tri­bunal on Fri­day banned reg­is­tra­tion of new diesel ve­hi­cles in Delhi amid ris­ing con­cerns over pol­lu­tion in the city. It also told the gov­ern­ment to not re­new the reg­is­tra­tion of diesel ve­hi­cles more than 10 years old.

Diesel is seen as a big­ger pol­lu­tant than petrol. But it is a big driver of sales for car­mak­ers, who re­fused to com­ment.

Their si­lence may be caused by shock. Of the new cars reg­is­tered in Delhi, close to half run on diesel. The buses use CNG, but the trucks are all diesel.

The move comes at a time when the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pe­ti­tion seek­ing a com­plete ban on diesel cars in the Cap­i­tal and other cities. The case will come up for hear­ing next week.

“This (NGT) or­der has no data or sci­en­tific logic. Stud­ies show only 2.5% of pol­lu­tion comes from cars. We will ap­peal,” said Vishnu Mathur, di­rec­tor-gen­eral of the in­dus­try lobby So­ci­ety of In­dian Au­to­mo­bile Man­u­fac­tur­ers.

The con­so­la­tion is that it is an in­terim ban, which the tri­bunal will re­view on Jan­uary 6, af­ter talk­ing to all the par­ties con­cerned.

“We also direct the gov­ern­ment to take a con­sci­en­tious de­ci­sion in re­gard to not buy­ing any diesel ve­hi­cle,” said the or­der passed by NGT head Swatan­ter Ku­mar.